Most Viral, Impactful Stories in the First 15 Years of the Jackson Free Press

Editor Donna Ladd's breaking story on Feb. 24, 2016, on Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declaring Confederate Heritage Month was the Jackson Free Press' most viral story in its first 15 years of publication with hundreds of thousands of page views.
Photo by Trip Burns.

The JFP has gotten hundreds of thousands of page views for our top-viewed stories since we started tracking a decade or so ago. The biggest one was last year, thanks to Gov. Phil Bryant, and most were enterprise stories that we worked hard to do well and be the first to reveal.

Others show the international interest in Jackson’s “Dancing Dolls” and local support of the city’s best restaurants. Many of our most viral stories blew up due to sudden media interest (The Huffington Post featured Ronni Mott's Michelle Byrom work, for instance, thus amplifying it to a much larger stage).

Some stories, such as the "Poverty-Crime Connection," have shown up steady over the years. Still others, those that have to do with "Dancing Dolls" or guns, for instance, draw traffic in spurts, depending on whether the TV program is airing, or in the case of guns, if the national news cycle is paying attention to them.

Here are our top 15 as of about late 2006 when we started tracking analytics as we do today.

In 2005, after a Neshoba County court convicted Edgar Ray Killen in the infamous civil-rights cold case, Donna Ladd, photographer Kate Medley and later intern Thabi Moyo joined a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. cameraman to investigate the 1964 Klan murders of two young black men near Meadville, Miss. On the first day, they learned that James Ford Seale was still alive, even though the Associated Press and The Clarion-Ledger had reported him dead. Our package of stories about the trip with Moore’s brother, Thomas, helped get the case re-opened and, ultimately, was used extensively in federal court leading to the conviction of Seale for federal kidnapping charges. He died in federal prison in 2011.

Brian Johnson’s long-form narrative showed how justice was denied under the media radar with few people asking questions about a wrongfully accused young black men. The story motivated a local reverend to raise money for Willis, give him a job and work with him to get a restitution law passed in Mississippi. Willis has regularly talked to JFP staffers and interns, as well as Youth Media Project teens, since his release in 2006, inspiring them to do deep work that matters. The story also exposed some problems with the prosecutor, whom actor Alec Baldwin played in the 1996 film "Ghosts of Mississippi" years before then-Judge DeLaughter went to prison after a bribe offer from Peters. Ahem.

Donna Ladd took notice of former WLBT executive and Texan Frank Melton when he challenged Harvey Johnson Jr. for mayor in 2006. Based on a conversation with Melton during his campaign, she learned that police had accused him in the 1990s of drug dealing and sexual assault of young men—charges never brought based on unreliable witnesses and missing files. Ladd, along with Adam Lynch and Brian Johnson, reported many ignored issues with Melton through the campaign and his four years in office.

One of the JFP’s most viral stories ever was the work of Ronni Mott in uncovering the questionable prosecution of Michelle Byrom, on death row in the state for 14 years for killing her husband, who had abused her. National and local media covered the story after Mott broke it in March 2014, showing that her son had confessed in writing how he had killed his father—evidence that the prosecutor did not present to the jury. The courts soon reversed her death sentence, which is very rare.

Throughout the JFP’s 15 years, we have focused much attention on the until-then little-reported issue of domestic and interpersonal violence in the state, especially against women, through powerful narratives about victims such as Heather Spencer and Doris Shavers. Ronni Mott did much of that reporting with multiple long-form stories about various aspects of the problems, including many potential solutions. The annual JFP Chick Ball—which has been on hiatus since 2015 due to other projects—raised money and awareness about the issues.

Ever since Donna Ladd published her Trent Lott cover story back in 2002, detailing the “southern strategy” of courting the racist vote to Mississippi, the JFP has stayed the course on filling in gaps in knowledge on basic history of why Mississippi and the South seceded (to preserve and extend slavery), and what all those Confederate memorials, including the state flag, really stand for. Hundreds of people have thanked us for exposing primary sources that shatters myths—and the work has gone viral with the national awareness of racism in recent years. See the work at jfp.ms/slavery.

The work we’re probably the proudest of at this point is our effort to find causes and solutions to violence in Jackson over the last two years. The work, which John Jay College of Criminal Justice fellowships and Solutions Journalism Network grants supported, has gone deep into the myriad causes of youth crime—and vetted potential solutions. Our coverage won many awards in the last year and continues.

Our favorite result of this initiative is how often we're now in public dialogues about crime and violence, and the word "solutions" is the most common word; this just did not used to happen. We also have many related conversations about the work, from the Mississippi FBI director to elected officials. Dig in at jfp.ms/preventingviolence.

We are very proud of our Hurricane Katrina coverage—which ranged from a weeks-long "Triage Blog" (no longer on site) to connect resources with people who needed help, to on-the-ground narratives about the destruction and human pain, to investigations of how Gov. Haley Barbour, his family and others dealt with funds and grants in the aftermath of the disaster.

Work We Wish Had Worked

The JFP also did deep, award-winning coverage of several topics that did not change the problem. We wished it had. Here are a few examples: